They have also become a source of security and privacy issues, as some built-in webcams can be remotely activated by spyware.

The most popular use of webcams is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations.

Mostly, these are manual-focus cameras and contain an old CCD array instead of comparatively newer CMOS array.The Eye Toy for the Play Station 2, Play Station Eye for the Play Station 3, and the Xbox Live Vision camera and Kinect motion sensor for the Xbox 360 and are color digital cameras that have been used as control input devices by some games.Small webcam-based PC games are available as either standalone executables or inside web browser windows using Adobe Flash.The term "webcam" (a clipped compound) may also be used in its original sense of a video camera connected to the Web continuously for an indefinite time, rather than for a particular session, generally supplying a view for anyone who visits its web page over the Internet.Some of them, for example, those used as online traffic cameras, are expensive, rugged professional video cameras.